Our leadership

Our leadership team ensures that Crown Agents USA delivers great results and operates at the highest levels of integrity and transparency.

Larry Michel, President and CEO

Larry Michel serves as the President and CEO of Crown Agents USA. Larry comes to Crown Agents USA from Management Sciences for Health (MSH), where he served as Vice President of the Leadership and Management Consulting Practice, growing the unit from $42 million to $132 million in annual revenue and helping MSH’s portfolio nearly triple – to over $320 million annually in five years. Prior to his work at MSH, Larry was a Director and Principal at Emerging Markets Group (EMG).
Larry has over 25 years of experience leading and growing complex global programs in finance, health, and economic growth, working with national and local governments, NGOs, post-conflict organizations, and the private sector. He has held leadership positions with major implementing partners including MSH, Cardno (formerly Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu), and IBM Business Consulting Services (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers) and partnered successfully with clients including USAID, DFID, the World Bank, the EU, and the IADB. Larry's international experience includes short term assignments in over 50 countries in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, Central and South America and the Caribbean, and he has lived and worked in Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the UK, and Kenya. He holds a B.A. and M.B.A from Northwestern University, served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Poland, and is on the Board of Directors of the Society for International Development – Washington.

Expertise:

Contact Information:

Phone: +1 202 650 6110

Email: lmichel@crownagents.com

Steve Thomas, ​Chief Operating Officer

Steve Thomas is Crown Agent USA's ​Chief Operating Officer. He is responsible for ensuring strong financial controls and compliance with government contracts, human resources, staff recruitment, information technology, finance, and accounting.
Steve joined Crown Agents USA in 2012 after serving as Senior Operations Manager for Weidemann Associates.Prior to joining Crown Agents USA/Weidemann, Steve managed a $9 million/year contract for ITT providing information technology, communications, and information systems to USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. He has also served as a consultant for USAID, where he established on site operations for the Disaster Assistance Response Teams. Steve began his career as an engineer for a major oil company and has been an instructor of the Dale Carnegie Course. Steve holds an MBA in International Financial Management from the University of New Mexico and BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Virginia Tech. Steve is based in our Washington, DC office.

Expertise:

Contact Information:

Phone: +1 202 650 6107

Email: ​sthomas@crownagents.com

Tanna Bruce, Director, Economic Governance and Trade Practice

Tanna Bruce is the Director of CA-USA's Economic Governance and Trade (EGAT) practice area. Tanna brings to CA-USA more than 20 years of experience leading the technical design, implementation, and oversight of international development projects in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She has deep technical expertise in economic governance, business enabling environment reform and advocacy, economics and governance analysis, and private sector-led economic growth.

Combining technical, field-based project management expertise with a proven track record of growing high-performing portfolios of work, Tanna most recently served as Business Development Direct for PAE and Creative Associates. Prior to these positions, she worked for Chemonics International for 14 years, starting as Program Manager of the AMIR Program in Jordan, a $70 million initiative to development the capacity of Jordanian business associations to advocate for business-friendly policy reforms. After this field project management role, she returned to DC where she held technical and corporate leadership positions including: New Business Director-Asia, Managing Director-Africa, Trade Specialist-Middle East, New Business Director-Middle East, Project Director-Middle East, and Economic Technical Advisor-Middle East.

Tanna has an MA in International Economics for Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a BA in International Studies and English Literature from UT Austin. She is based in our Washington, DC office.

Contact Information:

Phone: +1 202 650 6128

Email: ​tbruce@crownagents.com
​

Yulia Johansen, Director, ​Health Systems

Yulia Johansen ​joined Crown Agents USA in 2011 and currently leads the Health Systems Practice Area. Yulia has over 17 years of experience in international public health, energy, and environmental protection in developing countries and transitional economies. She has worked with multilateral and bilateral donors and technical agencies, including the World Bank, the European Commission, World Health Organization (WHO), DANIDA, USAID, the Global Fund, ​and national government ministries. Yulia has 1​2 years of specific management experience focused on strategic planning, budgeting, staff development, performance monitoring, technical and financial management, and coordination of multidisciplinary project teams.

Prior to joining Crown Agents USA, Yulia was with Cardno Emerging Markets (formerly Deloitte’s Emerging Marketing Group) as a Senior Manager of the Health Systems business line. Earlier she worked for the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen, Danish Environmental Protection Agency, and private consulting firms.

Yulia holds a Master of Science degree in Economics and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, a Master of Arts in Philology from the Moscow State University in Russia, and a Certificate in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University. She has lived in six countries and worked in 14. She is fluent in English, Russian, Danish, and possesses a good command of French.

Contact Information:

Scott Sayers joined Crown Agents USA in 2009 and currently serves as ​Director of Contracts and Procurement Advisory Services. In this role, he directs the operations of the contract and pricing development, providing strategic direction, contract management, procurement, and project implementation on all Crown Agents USA programs spanning four continents. Prior to his appointment as ​Director of Contracts, he served as Senior Programs Manager, providing overall leadership, guidance, and coordination of project personnel in the Procurement/Consulting Practice Area. Before joining Crown Agents USA, Scott worked as Manager of Subcontracts for Booz Allen Hamilton.

He is a US federal and international program management, contracts, and procurement professional with more than 25 years of experience. Scott’s areas of expertise include contracting/subcontracting, regulatory compliance, and finance. He is experienced in delivering development programs in multiple countries across Africa, Asia, and South America and in supporting various sectors, including health, energy, customs, trade, logistics, environment, food security, and information technology.

​Scott has a BS in Decision Science/Management Information Systems and a BS in Management from George Mason University. He is proficient in German.

Contact Information:

Dr. Sarah Tisch joined ​Crown Agents USA in March of 2015 as the Director for the Food Security and ​Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) team and is responsible for developing our Food Security and M&E practice area portfolios. Prior to joining Crown Agents USA, ​Sarah worked with Social Impact, Chemonics International, Internews Network, the International Rice Research Institute, and Winrock International.

Sarah possesses 25 years of project leadership, management, technical assistance, monitoring, evaluation, and assessment experience. She has designed, led, and supervised agriculture and food security projects with USAID and other donors, with a focus on gender integration. A three-time Chief of Party and three-time Program Leader, ​Sarah is adept with all aspects of project implementation including fostering positive client, counterpart, stakeholder, and partner relationships; managing project leaders and technical teams; project communications; project reporting compliance; gender mainstreaming and integration; training; and local staff and institutional capacity building. She is experienced with all aspects of project monitoring and project evaluation. ​Sarah has worked on long-term assignments in Nepal, the Philippines, and Russia/Ukraine, and has had many short-term assignments throughout Sub-Saharan and North Africa, East and South Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. She focused primarily on USAID projects in Indonesia for six years from 2007 through 2012. Sarah earned her PhD and MA in Political Science from Binghamton University in New York. She is proficient in Russian and Bahasa Indonesia. Sarah is based in our Washington, DC office.